Islamic Organization of the United Kingdom

The Islamic Organization of the United Kingdom (Arabic: المنظمة الإسلامية للمملكة المتحدة, Al-Munazzamat Al'Islamiat Lil-mamlakat Al-Muttahida) is an organization founded on 2 July 2008 in London, England by Lawangin Kashmiri Shaikh and Patang Farooqi. It seeks to establish support for sharia law in the United Kingdom, appealing mainly to Hizb ut-Tahrir, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State supporters or other radical Islamists. On 10 August 2011 it was declared a terrorist group by the United States and UK.

History
The Islamic Organization of the United Kingdom was founded on 2 July 2008 by Lawangin Kashmiri Shaikh and Patang Farooqi, two English Muslims of Pakistani descent. The group originated with the website Sharia 4 UK, an Islamist website that advocated the implementation of sharia law in the United Kingdom in both personal and public life, governing all citizens of the country. The group had ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist organization that advocated the creation of a worldwide caliphate, and its members were often in support of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State during their wars to implement Islamism on their subjects. IOUK gathered 16,000 followers, with many of them being converts. Shaun al-Rashid, an English convert from Manchester, became a major voice of the English Muslim convert community, and he supported IOUK. The group claimed to be peaceful, but they were later found to have made business transactions with al-Qaeda, al-Muhajiroun, and the Islamic State over various years, with donors sending money to buy the terrorist groups weapons while the groups would fund the IOUK to hold up a propaganda campaign in the British Isles. The group's notoriety soared in 2011 when it was declared a terrorist group, and in 2012 several leaders were targeted by being placed on no-fly lists to the USA. Sharia 4 UK was closed on 12 December 2015 after a long time of publishing pro-Islamist works.